Introduction

Dear everyone,

Where to begin an introduction? I’m an eagerly returning MU-Writing-Workshopper, having done a translation workshop last year in Serifos, southern Aegean. I was born in New York but spent my high school years and much of my young adulthood in Cyprus, an island in the eastern Mediterranean  where we speak Greek but which is an autonomous nation-state. Most of my writing practice has been in nonfiction – and I’m currently enrolled in the MU PhD program as a student of nonfiction – but my essays frequently begin as poems … whose lines just don’t know where to break. I love reading poetry, and indeed came into my love of literature through my high school Greek class, which focused on many of the poems Carolyn has provided for us here—ones by Cavafy, Seferis, Elytis.

Since I seem to be the first to post an introduction, I’m going to keep it less than generous, with no particularly weird facts as yet. One fun fact: I’ve been at the El Greco in Thessaloniki since Wednesday, and in Greece for over a week because I had a college friend’s wedding to attend in the Peloponnese. Also, I’m the Greek teacher for those enrolled in the language course. I look forward to seeing you all soon!

Joanna

Carolyn—the Greek Poets pdf downloads just fine! All sixty pages show up nicely.